If Christ came to turn our world right side up, why are so many people -- Christians included -- living such upside down lives? If Jesus came to plant the fruits of the spirit – love, joy, and peace – why is it so common for Christians to be burdened by earth-bound feelings of anger, depression and anxiety? One reason: it is rare to find a Christian who has fallen head over heals for God. What shall we do this side of the cross to be lost? The answer is "nothing!"
Are we just admirers of Christ, or are we followers? Do we just go to the Cross or do we climb up there with Him? Do you have an intimate relationship with God?
Another reason would be our view and others' perspectives on religion. I have seen here on Xanga the words religion and righteousness thrown around rather loosely, not so much by my beloved, but non-believers. So let me here attempt to explain my understanding of the two. During Jesus' time here on earth, the religious people seemed to get on His nerves. Why? The teaching of the Pharisees had a high concept of God. He was powerfully active in human history, particularly in the history of Israel. But they exalted the concept and pushed it so far that He (God) had become transcendental; they were hung up on legalism. It was because the law was the expression of the eternal will of God that it became, for the Pharisee, the norm in all matters of behavior. And any action which contravened the law, as Pharisees understood it, was an act of impiety and must be condemned. (Sound familiar?) (note) Of the 3 groups active at the time of Christ, it was the Pharisee that was closer related to the teachings of Christ. At no time did he ever condemn their sincere desire to fulfill the law; He made it very clear that He (Christ) had not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it. They all shared certain aspects, but the Sadducee had a tendency to drift toward materialism, and the Essenes were even more stringent than the Pharisees, but withdrew from all, they were separatists. In short they had put an unnecessary burden on the people.
Religion defined:
The word religion comes from the Latin word Ligare, which refers to something binding an individual, as a ligament binds muscle to bone -- more of a focus of control than enjoyment.
Religion is whatever you and I do in order to get God to love us more than we think He wants to on His own.
Righteousness is understood in the OT as a very different term.
Righteousness connotes a relationship characterized by mutual delight in one another, by loyalty, esteem and a lasting commitment.
With righteousness, we get to focus more on relationships and joy, more on compassion than control.
Far from being synonyms, religion and righteousness are closer to being opposites.
Is this the reason why Christianity is viewed as being too harsh, condemning, placing an unnecessary burden or demands on people's lives? Because of a wrong perspective?Would people be more willing to accept it if they knew that Christ's yoke was light and easy, not a burden?
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Comments (25)
While we may seek to be righteous, which certainly does bring joy, Jesus asked us also to become one with Him and the Father. In that sense, the “binding” that needs to be done is our accepting the covenants which He offers us. For those covenants to have power and be effective in our lives, they need to be administered by those who have the authority to act in name of God. Then, in striving to live up to our end of the covenant agreement, we become more and more Christ-like, until His will becomes our will, just as the Father’s will became his will. This process continues until we become one in Him as He is one in the Father.
Christianity is a great religion whose practice can lead to great righteousness.
During Jesus' time here on earth, the religious people seemed to get on His nerves.
Not true. Hypocrites got on Jesus' nerves. Jesus was VERY religious. People addressed him as Rabbi and in Scripture it is said that he is the cornerstone of Church.
Because mankind is subject to sin, we need sacramental religious practice to guide ourselves into proper and ordered behaviors and beliefs.
This requires that the intellect be engaged so that we understand why we do what we do in our practice of religion.
Religion is all about what one does or doesn't do to justify their own righteousness... rather than what was done for them by the person and the work of Jesus...
Jesus and religion are different...
Religion is all about implicating the efforts done by the self...
Jesus states that there's nothing we can do to implicate our righteousness therefore reliance on Him is the only remedy that will allow us to have righteousness because it's imputed... no action, motive, deed, or even sincerity will cleanse a soul other than the imputed righteousness of Christ and what He did on the Cross....
people mistake the notion that Christians try to live right by the fact that they believe that there is an objective Higher power which governs, sees, knows, and will judge later and by that, the efforts of living right are clearly seen to be as religious pomp and even hypocritical because a fallen pastor who committed adultery is an easy target... the problem is that this happens in the world all the time... so why rail on a pastor who committed adultery? becase the Pastor stands up and delivers a message of right living in light of God... non-believers and anti-believers do not promote such ideals... at least rarely they do with objectivity anyways... and that's the dichotomy...
Christianity is about what Jesus has done for you... it's trusting in the person and work of Jesus that gets you in... not your efforts...
Religion is about what you do or don't do that makes you closer to God... which I would say, "Good luck trying..."
@LoBornlite@xanga - Christianity is a great religion whose practice can lead to great righteousness.
Like abortion clinic bombings! The murder of Physcians in church!
You must be proud of your own deluded faith.
@CelestialTeapot@xanga - Like abortion clinic bombings! The murder of Physcians in church!
This type of generalization so disordered that it indicates a severe psychological pathology.
One can only pray that victim of such a sickness gets the needed help.
A lot of the problems associated with Christians is the fact that so few actually read and interpret the bible on their own. They rely on institutions to tell them how to live life. What's worse is that the only way to convert those in a materialistic society is by offering something so amazing that they'd be tempted to call themselves Christians. That is why most people convert. The second reason is that most people fear losing their life. lol It's all crazy.
To be a true follower of Christ, one must follow these easy rules:
1)Covet nothing. Material items are not important.
2)Live life to the fullest and treat others with the utmost respect, no matter what the outcome may be.
3)Personal success in a society is not important.
4)Christ is the true path, the way to ultimate salvation. Even if your family hates you, believe in Christ and you'll be saved.
5)When you pray, do so at home, to yourself.
And lastly, Church is unnecessary. Organized religion creates group thought and is possibly the worst thing for a society.
I was just thinking about this the other day...
@CelestialTeapot@xanga - Of course, the mention of abortion clinic bombings completely negates anything positive anyone might have said about Christianity.
Just like the existence of an African-American man who murders people completely negates anything positive anyone might have said about African-Americans.
Or...maybe mentioning abortion clinic bombings was completely irrelevant and needlessly incendiary. (Get it, incendiary? I crack myself up.) But honestly, those bombing are terrible tragedies. I'd not use them to take shots at Christianity as a whole any more than I'd use the WTC bombings to take shots at Islam as a whole. Doing either would be fallacious and unfair.
It always irks me when Christians lump all religion together instead of making distinctions as the bible and Jesus clearly does. There is true religion, Christianity, and false religion, man made religion. The greek word for religious means devotion to God. A truly religious Christian is devoted to Jesus.
@LoBornlite@xanga - Not true. Hypocrites got on Jesus' nerves. Jesus was VERY religious.
I agree.
@leadworshipper82 - I've already refuted you on your own site on this.
@LoBornlite@xanga - This type of generalization so disordered that it indicates a severe psychological pathology.
I was offering particular examples.
Religion is a rotten barrel. Sure, one or two bad apples don't negate the ripe crunchy ones, but they do represent the systemic ills of worldviews built on antediluvian philosophies and justifications.
@Nous_Apeiron@xanga - Of course, the mention of abortion clinic bombings completely negates anything positive anyone might have said about Christianity.
Nor does it negate other wrongs motivated and perpetuated by the ideas or "morality" of Christianity.
I'd not use them to take shots at Christianity as a whole any more than I'd use the WTC bombings to take shots at Islam as a whole. Doing either would be fallacious and unfair.
They are particular manifestations of fundamental ills of religion.
Beleifs and ideas ought to be built more on just dogmatism. Faith-- the lack of reason-- ought not be praised as a positive quality. "Morality" should extend beyond oudated ideas of Jesus' times.
As a crutch of philosophy, science, and ethics, religion has served as well; but as a society, it's time to walk on our own two feet.
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I regret sidetracking this entry's discussion. I realize now, this isn't the entry nor the audeince for going to sterotypical neo-atheist speeches. =(
@CelestialTeapot@xanga - I have no problem with stereotypical neo-atheist speeches. Like you, I just think this isn't the place.
And like you, I have little love for wanton irrationality.
By the way, does the capacity of the cells in our body to become cancerous indicate that our bodies are fundamentally ill in some important way that means it would be better to get rid of our bodies? What an intriguing line of reasoning you're developing there with religion. So many interesting applications.
I disagree with both definitions of religion and righteousness- especially the righteousness definition.
Religion is not a "bad" thing according to the scriptures. What WE have turned it into is a bad thing, and the definition you provided (a common one) is a bad unerstanding of it.
A better understanding of the scriptural definition of religion is James 1:27 "Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world."
To provide you with a definition of righteousness I would need to copy/paste half of the Bible. But it is certainly not a relationship it is an more like a attitude or behavior. It perhaps does affect our relationship with God- but it is not a relationship.
@Nous_Apeiron@xanga - By the way, does the capacity of the cells in our body to become cancerous indicate that our bodies are fundamentally ill in some important way that means it would be better to get rid of our bodies?
In this extended anaology, there is no alternative but to keep our bodies and its inherent risks of failure.
With religion, its rejection also means a rejection of its ills, risks, and problems.
@CelestialTeapot@xanga - Actually, given time for research and development, I have no doubt that we would be able to replace or upgrade our bodies with something quite different. I use the term "different" for a particular reason, though. Replacing our limbs of flesh and bones with titanium and high-grade polymer substances might for example result in wear curves that could far surpass those of flesh and bone, but it would be likely to result in a mentality of recklessness in behavior because the consequences of physical misdeeds would be much less. Also, titanium ain't cheap and it's very much a finite resource. Scarcity would become an issue, and as a result stealing the limbs of others and recycling them would likely become a chronic problem for the criminal justice system.
But even if it was not the case that everything has functional limitations no matter how much we might favor it, getting rid of religion would not get rid of bombings, wars, murders, and other social ills. This is obvious from the fact that plenty of people have committed such atrocities for reasons completely unrelated to religion. It's also clear because the overwhelming majority of religious people who oppose abortion do not bomb abortion clinics. If there were a direct causal relationship between religious opposition to abortion and bombing abortion clinics, there should not be such a ridiculously low correlation between the two.
The most we can conclude from the evidence would be that religious opposition to abortion is a necessary cause for bombing an abortion clinic but not sufficient cause by itself for the act. And even if that is the case, it would not lead to the conclusion that getting rid of religion would be an appropriate response. After all, if we used that sort of justification for getting rid of belief sets, we'd also have to abolish all the political ideologies that have ever been used as a rationalization for committing atrocities.
@musterion99@xanga - if you refuted me... i would have posted a rebuttal concerning your refuting meaning I would have agreed with you... so when did I do that?
in fact... when did you refute me period?
@leadworshipper82 - Whether you did a rebuttal or not has nothing to do with it. This is where I refuted you. LINK
@deepestrecesses - A better understanding of the scriptural definition of religion is James 1:27 "Pure and undefiled
religionin the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows
in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world."
Amen. And Jesus referred to false religion as being the commandments of men, not the commandments of God.
Religion always contains righteousness inside it, but on the other hand not all righteousness is something about religion...
RELIGION IS A STUDY OF SOME BELIEF. THERE ARE SO MANY RELIGION AND JUST TO MANY TO NAME. NO BIBLICAL REFERENCE TO RELIGION IN THE BIBLE THAT I KNOW OF....
NOW RIGHTEOUS:
IN ACTS CHAPTER 10:VERSES 34,35
NO PERSON IS ANY BETTER THAN ANY OTHER PERSON.
WHEN IT SAYS FEARTH HIM, IT MEAN NOT BE SCARED OF HIM. THAT MEAN TO PUT HIM IN REVERENCE AND WORKETH RIGHTEOUSNESS:
WHAT IS RIGHTEOUSNESS?
IT SIMPLY MEANS BEING IN RIGHT STANDING WITH GOD.
the difference between religion and righteousness is matthew 25.
First) The moment you accept Jesus as your Savior, you are the righteousness of Christ. It is not something you have to attain or put into practice. Right living and right choices are and that's not the same as the automatic inheritance of the righteousness of Christ or the Annointed One and His Annointing residing within you now as join heirs to the throne. Second) This weblog entry is religious. Third) This weblog entry is anything but righteous. Fourth) Topics like these is why "Christianity" is viewed as harsh, etc. and burdensome for those that try to walk out their salvation because of the rhetoric and debate that stems from topics such as these. Scripture also says to discuss anything like this is debating religion and is wrong. It flat out says "don't debate/discuss" religion.
To me, religion is just going through the motions of loving God...saying all the right scriptures when it's not really in your heart. I would say that true Christianity is not even about religion, its about having a REAL relationship with God. The reason why people are so turned off by Christians is because they see them talking about one thing and then acting a totally different way at the same time. I'm tired of religion and I just want people to know that a relationship with God is beautiful and it satisfies every part of you. If Christians would live in intimacy with God, I believe that more people would accept Christ because that's just how Jesus was...He had a very close relationship with the heavenly Father inspite of what the "religious" leaders said about Him...that's why so many people were drawn to him. That's why I love Him so...
I thought we'd given up on responding to LoBornLite, guys.
I am 75 and disappointed in my emotional relationship to Jesus Christ.
I am 75 and disappointed that I still sin.
I am seeking the Lord more now and hope I do 'feel' Him in my heart.